Gongali Village School

Monday, 9 November 2015

Please come with your friends and enjoy an evening of good music from our talented musicians and singers. The repertoire of Niels Petersen and Connie Lebeau include a range of classics and romantic songs including Moondance, Look of Love, Spooky, etc.
See their demo performance on Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcjmYVm8Kjc

You can also join in the fun with our silent auctions and raffles.
Proceeds from tickets, silent auction and raffle sales will all go to support our school-building in Tanzania.

Thursday, 5 November 2015

We have receive the remaining funds needed to complete the remaining 2 classrooms of the 7-classroom school at Kilimamoja Village in northern Tanzania. Construction will resume shortly and will be completed by mid-December, in time for the opening of classes in early January 2016.

The next building for this site will be a 2-family Teacher Residence building for the new teachers.

The gold building is classroom no. 5.
Classroom 6 and 7 will be built adjacent to it

A heartfelt thank you from the Mayor of Kilimamoja and the teachers and children of the school to all who have supported this project!

Thursday, 3 September 2015

Our builder, Restus
Sanka, is again doing a fine job with his quality construction practices. The
first classroom of the 3-classroom building is underway, with the concrete
floor slab finished and the concrete brick walls erected.

First Classroom Walls- Concrete slab for Remaining Classrooms

First Classroom Walls

More
Funds Needed

Our current focus is
the funds needed to complete the 2 remaining classrooms of the 3-classroom
building at Kilimamoja Village.

The graduates
from Standard 4 level at this school urgently need this building for the 2016
academic terms.

To all our
supporters, please consider a donation to us from your 2015 charitable giving
budget.

Please help us complete this building - only $5,500 left.

Please make
out cheque to "PSFA Primary Schools For Africa Society", and send to:

Primary
Schools For Africa Society

3301
Wordsworth Street, Victoria, BC, V8P 4B9

or with
credit card, click on DONATION button on website
www.PrimarySchoolsForAfrica.com

A tax
receipt will be provided.

Donor Tony Gvora visits Edith Gvora High School – Gongali Village

Tony Gvora, his
fiancée Beth Street, and Sang Han accompanied me on this trip. All are donors.
We visited the Gongali Village’s Edith Gvora High School built in December 2014
with the generous donation of Tony Gvora to memorialize his late wife Edith.

A typical classroom

A gathering of local
politicians, various officials and a handful of students, colourfully dressed
in their new blue and orange uniforms, celebrated Tony’s generosity with a
quick tour of the buildings, speeches, and his induction into the Gongali
community as an honorary elder, complete with a donated traditional robe and
“walking stick”. Tony responded with his
own gift; playing his harmonica to the tune of the Tanzania national song to a
classroom of students as they sang it.

Beth Getting Robed

Tony Gvora

Tony now as honorary elder

Visit To Gongali Village (Aslini) Primary SchoolWe also visited our
first school project, the Gongali (Aslini) Primary School, where 6 of the 8
buildings have been built to date. Teachers Sarah and Boniface organized a
special greeting with the pupils singing a welcome, after which Tony, Beth and
Sang, much to their delight, were “swarmed” with affection and curiosity by
dozens of pupils eager to shake their hands.

Pupils at Gongali Primary Singing a Greeting

Tony, Beth and Sang with Gongali pupils

Sang Han got to visit
and admire the 2 classrooms that he and Alicia Lee, our Victoria artist
benefactor, funded.

Sang Han and Mayor Peter Hayshi - Alicia and Sang Classroom

New
Project – Tidivi Primary School – Kirurumu Rd, Kilimamoja Village

The alumni of Alan Roy’s
alma mater, Royal Military College in Kingston Ontario are sponsoring the construction
of a new school to be built in the village of Kilimamoja near Karatu in
northern Tanzania where an urgent need exists to accommodate approximately 50 -
60 local children who at present either do not attend school or are travelling
too far to go to school.

To date $21,000 has
been raised for the first phase of construction.

Rehearsal - Lutheran Church ChoirWe were quite curious about the beautiful singing coming from the church next to our lodge every day, so Tony, Beth and I decided to check it out. Local choir members were rehearsing for a promotional fundraising video and allowed us to watch. A lovely heartwarming experience.Click on the link below for the video.

Wednesday, 29 July 2015

Construction has started!!Construction of the 3-classroom building in Kilimamoja is underway. The local builder Restus Sanka has all the material stored on site and is preparing the foundations for the concrete floor slab.At this point, with the present limited funds, we are able to build the first classroom#5 and the floor slab only for Classrooms 6 & 7.We are continuing to fundraise for the additional $12,500 needed for the remaining 2 classrooms.

The graduates from Standard 4 level at this school urgently need this building for the 2016 academic terms. To all our supporters, please consider a donation to us from your 2015 charitable giving budget.Please help us complete this building.

Please make out cheque to "PSFA Primary Schools For Africa Society", and send to:

Primary Schools For Africa Society

3301 Wordsworth Street, Victoria, BC, V8P 4B9

or with credit card, click on DONATION button on website www.PrimarySchoolsForAfrica.com

Amazing,awesome, unforgettable. Words cannot adequately describe the
experience we had on 20 December in Qameyu Village.

congratulating Restus and the local VIP's

women greeting us - thrown flowers rained down on us

When Mathew and I arrived at the site, our car was blockaded
by about 90 colourfully dressed chanting and warbling women. As we got out of
the car, they engulfed us and led us to the reception area adjacent the
beautiful newly painted orange-red buildings. No time to look more closely at
the buildings, as the mass of about 300 villagers huddled around the canopied
VIP tables were anxious to proceed with the opening ceremonies.

Similar to Gongali, we were treated to drumming and dancing then a few passionate speeches by the District and local politicians who emphasized the responsibilities of parents, teachers and students themselves to maintain a quality environment. A few points made;

the handshake with one of the first pupils

“Parents - provide clean uniforms and food; children - study hard, and keep the walls and floors clean from the mud (a challenging task in the rainy season).”

we all joined in the dance

The top VIP, District Executive Director, Mr Mrutu, invited
me at the beginning of his speech to accompany him in singing the national cultural
anthem. It sparked a rousing applause. My speech told the story of donor Ted
Woodcock whose wife recently passed away and how he wanted to memorialize her
with the name of the school, “Patricia Elizabeth Primary School”.

“…she would be very pleased to be here to see the smiles on
all you wonderful children.”

And then I gestured my arms and eyes upward and said;

“She’s probably looking down at us now and smiling at you.”
Everyone laughed.

ribbon-cutting

We cut the ribbon to the doors of the Administration building to more great
applause, recorded it with appropriate photos, then disassembled informally for
congratulatory chats and drinking of soda (pop) for the kids and local “busa”
for the adults.

The atmosphere was quite jubilant until the ever-present
threatening dark clouds suddenly released a torrential downpour that sent
everyone scurrying for shelter - our cue to leave.

It was a tense two-hour ride back to Babati to our lodge.
The rain slickened the clay roads causing me to lose control of the car at one
point down a steep slope. The one good thing about the trip though was the reduction
of speed of the boda-boda motorcyclists who drive way too recklessly, passing
and cutting in too soon, creating huge dust clouds. They were reduced to overcautious
slipping and sliding at slow speeds. Thank God at least for that.

the new school - minutes later, the sky fell

"jump-dance" entertainment

Election Fever

December 15 was the national Election Day for lower level
government leaders; Ward and Village officials; chairmen and executive
officers. Next year it will be for the district and national levels; District
Chairmen, MP’s, President.In the last
few days before an election, men from both parties (CCM and Chadema) were
driving around everywhere, blasting out their appeals to voters through
boom-box loudspeakers mounted on the back of pick-up trucks. And noisy
celebrations in the streets and bars were the norm – an excuse to party, it
seems.

When I arrived at the Gongali Primary School site on 16
December for my meeting with the school committee, I was surprised to see
District Chairman Lazaro Titus speaking to a large gathering in the schoolyard.
Head teacher Mark Mollel educated me on post election procedures. The school
was the site for the village voting. I noticed wind-blown pages of electorate
lists pasted on the exterior walls of the school. And today, it was Lazarus’
job to brief the population on the results. Since there is no local TV media,
the District Chairman has the daunting task of going to each ward in each
village to announce the results. I spoke with him briefly. He looked
exhausted.

Gongali/Kilimamoja Primary School Operating Budget
Assistance

meeting with school committees

My school visits and discussions with the head teachers
uncovered of a serious lack of operating expenses. Government assistance
amounted to a paltry 200. CDN per year for school supplies only, not enough to
cover costs for all the books needed for new graduating classes. Being always
so busy with building construction, I admit to being a little neglectful in looking
closer at the way the schools were operating. The school office has no shelving
to store books, no cabinets to store binders and files, not even any binders
for the files - just heaps of paper and books on the floor. The teacher’s desk
in classrooms is a shared kids desk. Building maintenance is non-existent. The
wall paint on the first few buildings we did at Gongali and Kilimamoja is
peeling and wood trim is back to bare wood. Some windows are broken. The
impoverished village cannot contribute anything significant, other than
uniforms and meals at home, i.e., no food program for kids lunches.

After hands-on work sessions with the school committees of
both schools, I concluded that their need was genuine; books, administration
supplies, teacher desks, shelving and painting, but no food program as
unfortunately it was not in our mandate and original agreements with the
village. We painstakingly went through their list of needs and arrived at a minimal
budget, about half of what they were asking. And when I announced that this
year we were fortunate to have some available funds to at least get the schools
in basic and decent working order, to my surprise, the committee members all
stood up and cheered. This was a new experience now for them, to actually have
a budget to work with.

We discussed administrative procedures, including the need
for a bank account, double signatures on cheques and District Education Office
co-ordination. And when they satisfied me that all procedures were in place a
few days later, I deposited a couple of thousand dollars each in their
accounts.

Getting Closer; Electricity at Gongali Aslini Primary
School.

Probably the greatest achievement of this trip was
finalizing the installation of electricity to our first school, Gongali Primary
School. After six months of challenging commitments from both the national
company Tanesco and our electrical contractor, the switch is about to be turned
on. Back in May, we signed a contract with Tanesco to do the installation, but
because we were a “private” organization, we were required to provide the
equipment to them. They gave us a shopping list of items; a transformer, cable,
connectors and ground rods that we had to purchase from a manufacturer. With no
choice, we agreed, but ohm-my-God, we
had our work cut out for us. We ordered the transformer from the manufacturer
in Arusha, and when its assembly was completed, we hired a truck driver and had
it delivered to the site at Karatu. Insuring it in transit was not possible so
we took the risk.

The Transformer FINALLY installed

The transformer sat at the site for five months, waiting for
Tanesco to get two wooden poles. I was re-volt-ed
that nothing was happening. But it seems we got a stroke of luck when, as I was
meeting with the school committee at Gongali, we had an unexpected visitor; the
honourable Member of Parliament Israel Natse (remember him from the high school
opening?) who just out of curiosity and also for good press I imagine, wanted
to sit in on the meeting. That was my cue! I mentioned the Tanesco resistance to our electricity connection
progress and no sooner had I completed my sentence, than he was on his cell
phone. Tanesco started work again the next day.

transformer repair

Poles arrived at the site the next day, but they were not
installed in the locations shown on my plan to run the line to the head teacher
office, but instead were located to connect to the last residence building.
Their field foreman apparently had good reasons to do so, but it required our
electrician to relocate the main panel and do extensive building rewiring.

Well, guess what! When it was finally installed in December,
Tanesco noticed the transformer was damaged. Yes, probably in transit. I consulted
with the manufacturer and was relieved to hear it was only a minor problem. He
gave me instructions and I hired a welder to reinstall the broken part, which
he did (see photos). So at the time of my departure from Tanzania back to
Canada, Tanesco was back on the job, current-ly
installing the meters and hopefully doing the final connection.

Despite all the hassles, it was worthwhile. The school staff
and students are excited and are finally taking the Korean-donated computers
out of the boxes for January training classes. The homes and classrooms will
have lighting! And most importantly…cell phones can be charged. What a huge
life-changing accomplishment for this dark part of Africa! And remember what I
described previously about the Mayor’s plans now - to relocate his offices
here, build a church, and more.

The two new school projects this year were a complete
success. We are so fortunate to have finally found a quality builder in Restus
Sanka, and I have great confidence in both the Gongali Village and Qameyu
Village local government and school officials to complete their share of the
remaining project facilities. Major issues remain however;

Both the Edith Gvora High School and
Patricia Elizabeth Primary School projects need electricity, water and sewage
drainage systems. We can help with continued donations from our
friends in Canada and elsewhere.

We are also fortunate to be partnered with Dr Askwar Hilonga
and his “Gongali Model Co”. They continue to strive for solutions to assist in
the High School’s development. To date they have initiated and were responsible
for the drilling of well-water near the high school site and are seeking
solutions for funding of the associated pump systems.

Christmas in Tanzania

Christmas goat

Christmas here is simple, but heartwarming. It’s such a nice break from the Western commercialism. Christmas Day and Boxing Day are simple family times, cooking hearty meals (pilau a highlight) and visits from neighbours who express their appreciation. I was cycling on Christmas Eve and passed a man and his young son walking a young goat to a neighbour’s house. He explained it was a Christmas gift for helping him with his crop harvesting.

A pleasant surprise. I received a newborn calf as a Christmas gift from a local family near my lodge who befriended me over the last couple of years. What to do with that? Of course, it should stay with its mother and I must now pay for its upkeep and feeding so that it may grow to be a healthy milk-producing cow. Haha. I had to applaud it as a very clever enterprise on their part.

my Xmas present

Before leaving Karatu, I visited Gongali School's top pupil Patricia at her home. I was shocked to hear from head teacher Mark Mollel that things had turned worse for the family. The father had abandoned the family, and with no income, little Patricia hasn't even a school uniform to wear. It didn't seem fair to have the school's top student feeling sad and ashamed about her clothing. I gave the family a Christmas present; enough funds for a new uniform and a bunch more for food.

Star Pupil Patricia's family

Valerie and Lillian

My last few days in Tanzania spent with Mathew Sulle and Claud Goi’s families were relaxing and memorable. The highlight was the
enjoyment of their kids watching a couple of rented I-tune movies on my
computer, a rarity for Tanzanians. Do you remember, a year ago, Claud’s new
baby was named after Lillian, the mother of donor Michael Stringham’s wife
Charlotte who visited their project last January. I was very happy to see
little Lillian in her beautiful white Christmas dress and her hair perfectly
braided in little ribbons, almost one year old, walking now and the centre
point of attention with her big smiles. We did a lot of eating, sharing stories,
laughing and reminiscing. I’m very fortunate and blessed to be a welcomed part
of these families.

Asante sana sana
(Thank you so much) and kilalaheri
(good luck) to all of you in the New Year.